Phoenix – Diana Taurasi has spent the last two weeks to deal with retirement following a 20 year legendary career with Phoenix Mercury. Her two young children, Leo and Isla also wonder what it means.
“We went on a plane for New York (last week) and Leo says:” Is retirement sad? “” Remember Taurasi at his retired press conference on Thursday. “It was the longest four -hour plane trip to New York of all time, just thinking.”
Taurasi announced his basketball retirement on February 25, Get away as triple WNBA champion and the top scorer in the WNBA. Although the WNBA All-Star 11 times said it was content with its decision to retire, Taurasi also said that it was actively mourning the end of its illustrious career.
“It’s sad,” admitted Taurasi. “I do not show it. I don’t like to show my sadness externally, but I’m sad. This is the game that I have played since I was seven years old. It’s all things in life that I always liked to do.”
“I don’t think it’s real so far.”
Diana Taurasi made her last farewell during her retired press conference, which was rightly held on the courts of Diana Taurasi appointed in her honor to the Mercury practice center in Phoenix. pic.twitter.com/t0p4x8sthn
– Cydney Henderson (@cydhenderson) March 13, 2025
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Taurasi, 42, opted for a farewell tour during his last season. His retired press conference was rightly held on the courts of Diana Taurasi at the Mercury practice center.
Friends and a family, including the wife of Taurasi, Penny Taylor, and their two children, gathered for his last farewells in matched orange shirts adorned with the emblematic Taurasi logo. The severity of his retirement began to sink.
“I made this announcement last week, but I don’t think it’s real to now,” said Taurasi. “All the great memories that I have been over here for 20 years are overwhelming.”
Diana Taurasi: “I knew I didn’t have it in me”
Taurasi played his last Mercury match on September 25 – Phoenix lost against Minnesota Lynx 101-88 in the first round of the playoffs. She did not comment if she would come back at the time and left many fans wondering “if that’s all”, the exact verbiage that the Mercury used to announce the last home games of the regular team.
Taurasi said she didn’t know what the future was holding, but her decision has become clear when the new year approaches.
“After the end of the season (2024), I really wanted to take time and really think about what I wanted to do,” said Taurasi. “I know that the work that is preparing for a season. Once on January 1, I came and came … I knew in my heart that I did not have it in me to put this preparation of four months that I usually do in a season. I had no longer that and I did well.”
Taurasi was drafted by the Mercury with the first global choice of the 2004 WNBA draft after having led the UCONN Huskies to three NCAA championships (2002-2004). She spent her entire career in Phoenix, which Taurasi called her greatest accomplishment, even more than her six Olympic gold medals.
“Of all the things in my career – The control list continues over and over again – Being in this city for 20 years for me is the only thing that is the most important thing in the world, “she said.” The championships, the points, all these things will be broken – I hope not soon. The character and the loyalty you show every day is what people care and remember. If I did this in a way that can transcend the way people watch, not only women’s basketball, but female sports, the way we abandon our lives and sacrifice everything for the thing we love the most. For me, it was basketball forever.
What is the next step for Diana Taurasi?
“I really don’t know,” she admitted.
Although she is not sure of her next act, that she enters the broadcast or podcasting, like her good friend Sue Bird, Taurasi said that she was delighted to immerse herself in her family after having a vision of the tunnel for so long.
“I’m so addicted to basketball game for 30 years. That’s all I was thinking about. That’s all I was preparing,” she said. “In the past two weeks, I really understood what it really means to be at home and be present. You know, I was at home before, but my mind was still thinking about the next game. … Now, it’s Leo and Isla and be present for Penny and my family and my friends who would always make sure that I am well. Now, it’s my turn to repay it all.”
Do not exclude a return yet. When Taurasi has entered the Mercury training center for the first time since the end of the season, she told GM Nick U’ren: “I want to play again.”
But not so fast.
“I am sure I will have a lot of feelings, but I am so happy where I am currently personally,” said Taurasi. “Now, I can really think about what 20 years felt and on the things I was lucky to be part of.”
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This article originally appeared on USA Today: Diana Taurasi press conference: Why has the WNBA legend decided to retire
